The Athanasian Creed : speech

a I B RAR.Y

OF THE
UNIVLRSITY
Of ILLINOIS

: ;KW

Cl)e Htbanasian Creed.

SPEECH BY THE LATE MARQUIS OF

SALISBURY.

In view of the recrudescence of attacks on this
venerable Symbol of the Catholic Faith, it may
be interesting at this time to reprint the speech
made by the late Lord Salisbury at -the great
Meeting organized by the English Church Union
and held at St. James's Hall on Jan. 31st, 1873.

The Marquis qf Salisbury (who was received with great
cheering), said : The resolution which I have to move is —

That this Meeting earnestly deprecates, as fraught with danger to the
preservation of Christian truth throughout the world, any mutilation of
the Athanasian Creed, or any alteration of its status in the Book of
Common Prayer.

The position of things with which we have to deal is this —
an ancient Creed (which we now know dates from the sixth
century) representing with exact fidelity the words and phrases
of the greatest uninspired champion the Christian Church ever
produced, round which the faith and devotion of thirty genera-
tions of Christians have entwined themselves — this Creed has
come down to our time, and for the first time in the history of
Europe it is proposed to offer an affront to it. We have to ask
ourselves what are the reasons on which this course is taken,
what are the grounds which can be alleged in its behalf, and

what are the dangers which it reveals ? Of course, there have
been many different courses proposed to be adopted with
reference to this Creed. On the part of those who, partly from
their own feelings, but I think more often with the desire of
averting a supposed popular feeling which perhaps after all did
not exist, complain of this Creed, a great variety of changes
have been suggested ; but in the main they have resolved
themselves into two. One of them is that which has been
unhappily supported by some ^Bishops of our Church, and
which I am bound to say has commended itself undoubtedly to
a few excellent men, and that is the mutilation of the Creed.
To me that has always seemed the most inadmissible proposi-
tion that could possibly be made (cheers). There is not only
that consideration upon which the chairman has so forcibly
remarked, that this Creed is the inheritance of the whole
Catholic Church, and no part of the Church can take upon
itself to tamper with its words ; but there is also the fact that
these clauses, speaking of the retribution of guilty unbelief, only
express a doctrine which is expressed with quite as much
distinctness and force in other parts of the formularies of the
Church. Until you can get rid of the Eighteenth Article, the
one anathema which the gentle spirit of our Reformers allowed
them to insert in the formularies of faith — the Article w^hich
states that " they are to be had accursed that presume to say
that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he
professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to
that law and the light of nature," — you will not get rid of the
objection which these gentlemen feel to the warning clauses of
the Athanasian Creed. Therefore the whole object which they
have in view would not be met except by far more drastic
measures than they venture to propose. I do not like to speak
of the purely theological objections, for I know there are those
coming after me who can dwell with a great deal more force
than I can upon the terrible danger of teaching in this age of
scepticisrn that dogma is a matter of small account, and that
men may safely tamper with their faith. I do not dwell on
that ; but do not suppose I pass it by because I lightly regard
its importance, but because I greatly regard my own incapacity
to deal with such a theme. Look, then, at the matter in a

humbler but more practical view. If you propose in any
way to alter or mutilate the Athanasian Creed, who is to do it ?
(cheers). Convocation will not (loud cheers). Then it must
be done by the House of Commons (" oh, oh ! "). Any one
who has been privileged to hear the way in which discussions
in committee, on any important proposition, are carried on in
the House, will not feel that it will tend much to the advance of
Christian edification if the highest doctrines of our faith are
submitted to amendments and counter amendments, divisions
and cross divisions, in that highly honourable, but somewhat
combative, assembly (a laugh). Yet that is what you will be
driven to if it is allowed for one moment that the Legislature
of its own mind, and without any support or sanction from the
Church, is to undertake the task, before which synods of
Churchmen have shrunk, of framing new formulas of faith for
the acceptance of the Christian Church. I, therefore, put
aside the question of altering the Creed apart from theological
objections. I put it aside as a thing that in the present con-
stitution of the EngHsh Government, in the present relations
between the Church and the State, it would be impossible to
do. Then we come to the other proposition — the proposition
which has the sanction of Lord Shaftesbury's name, and which
was supported by a memorial he procured in the course of the
summer. The proposal is that the Creed should be banished
from the service of the Church — not, as I understand, dismissed
altogether from the Church's consideration, but put upon a
kind of retired list (laughter) — put, as a gentleman in the
gallery observes, upon half-pay, and in that condition left upon
the formularies of the Church. Now, have these 7,000 gentle-
men who signed the memorial really asked themselves what
their objection really is ? It cannot be an objection to substance,
because if it was an objection to substance it could not
possibly have been signed by any clergy of the Established
Church. We know that the clergy have all stated in the most
solemn way, and so have many besides the clergy, that this
Creed is most thoroughly to be received and believed, for it
may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture 5
and we know that they are all not only pious but honourable
men ; and it is perfectly inconceivable that they should join in

an objection to the substance of that which they have pro-
nounced to be perfectly consonant with Holy Scripture. But
not only that — the very course they propose to pursue shows
that they do not object to the substance of the Creed : because
it is to be left among the formularies, only it is not to be
recited in church ; in other words, if they object to the sub-
stance, they are prepared to say that that may be announced
to the world as the belief of a body of Christians which
that body of Christians dare not say in the presence of
Almighty God in church. That is an inconceivable proposi-
tion, and I think it is impossible to come to any other
conclusion but that these 7,000 gentlemen — (A Voice :
" 3,000 ") — these 3,000 gentlemen then — I beg their pardon
for exaggerating their number — object to nothing but the
form of the Creed. Well, now, I have read a great number
of objections to the form of the Creed, I might almost call
them cavils, and what has struck me in respect of them all is,
that though they show much learning and great ingenuity, they
are all marked by an utter want of breadth. They are the
criticisms not of men accustomed to deal with large masses of
mankind, but rather the fastidious criticisms of men accustomed
to deal with literary productions. I was much struck with
the fact that in this memorial of 3,000 there were several peers,
many members of Parliament, and many persons well known
in London, but there was a very beggarly array of church-
wardens (cheers). There was, in fact, a large assemblage of
the rich and educated, but of the other portions of the laity
very little account seems to have been taken. I am not myself
adverse in secular matters to a certain flavour of aristocratic
doctrine, but I never dreamt of such Toryism as would imagine >
that the objections of peers and members of Parliament to an
article of faith was more valuable than that of humbler laymen.
But there is a lesson to be drawn from this peculiar proportion.
It struck me on reading it that it was a proportion not dissimilar
from that which St. Paul observed when he contemplated the
ranks of the early Christian converts, and possibly for the
same reason ; but, at all events, it shows us that these
criticisms and objections which are levelled at the Creed are
not of a kind which can commend themselves to the broad

'&.

views of the mass of men. The mass of men do not understand
these fastidious objections to mere form. They think of sub-
stance, and of substance only. They do not inquire whether
this Article may be possibly offensive to the Greek Church.
They do not ask whether that Article may represent a view of
the Divine hypostasis later than the Nicaean : they do not
enter into subtleties of that kind ; but these broad facts are
present to their minds — they know this Creed has come down
through many centuries associated with the most sacred
doctrines of the Christian Church ; they know it was taken by
the Reformers whose names they venerate, and from whose
fellowship they would not be lightly parted, and put in the fore-
front in order to mark, at a moment when faith was sorely
tried, the intensity of the adhesion of the Church of England
to this, the foundation of our faith. They know that under the
shadow of this Creed have rested minds as learned and hearts
as holy as any Church has ever produced ; they know that
through the three centuries that have elapsed since this Creed
was put into the common service of our Church tiumbers of
men, generations of Christian men, certainly not less devoted
and less holy than those amongst whom we live, have been
perfectly satisfied to receive this Creed ; and they now know
that it has been attacked, in the first instance, mainly under
the urgency and at the desire of men to whom all dogmatic
teaching is an abomination. Well, then, if you give it up, do
you imagine they will think it is on account of a criticism of
mere form ? Do you imagine they will not see the substance
behind the form, and that they will not conclude that the
Church that deserts a position that has been held so long is
really indifferent to the doctrine which that Creed contains ? I
am astounded, I confess, at the levity with which many men
seem to have regarded the effects that will follow from the
course which they recommend with respect to this Creed.
They seem to imagine that tender consciences are all upon one
side. They seem to think that a man may be very sensitive to
words in a Creed which he thinks are too strongly expressed,
but that it is impossible that any man should be sensitive if an
affront is put upon the main article of the faith which he holds.
That is the danger which we have to fear. There are two

courses which may be pursued. It is barely possible that
Parliament may interfere with this Creed ; it is barely possible
that the Church may give it up (" never, never "). If Parlia-
ment were to interfere with it the evil would be very great.
Supposing it were to remove the Creed from the Prayer Book
and prohibit its use in church, I fear that the prohibition would
be disregarded (great cheering) in such a vast number of
instances that Parliament would be puzzled to execute its own
decrees. If, on the other hand, the option, as it is called, of
abandoning it were given, it would introduce a new parting
line into the Church, a new cause of bitterness and antagonism
between parish and parish, new controversies, new acrimonies,
new sources of paralysis to the efforts by which alone religion
and civilisation can be carried into the masses of ignorance
with which we have to deal. But 'the interference of Parlia-
ment would be a far lighter evil than the possible submission
and desertion of the Church. It is a small matter comparatively
that consciences would be wounded, and deep resentments
would be excited, and probably a formidable schism would be
created ; it is a small matter compared with that frightful evil
that men would come to look upon the Church as having
deserted her sacred mission, and having sunk, in their minds,
to the level of those Protestant communities abroad — at Geneva
and in Paris — where the faith which the Athanasian Creed
proclaims has been openly abandoned. Such a result might
have been obtained by the help of those scrupulous consciences
whom we respect, though we regret their efforts ; but it would
not be the scrupulous consciences that would reap the ultimate
results. Behind the thin line of scrupulous consciences we
see the vast forces of unbelief. The scrupulous consciences
would win the battle ; the forces of unbelief would gather the
spoils of victory (great cheering). But I need not pursue that
theme. I feel that it cannot be (renewed cheers), I am sure
that the experience of the last few months has taught Church-
men and politicans alike that this is not a subject to be lightly
tampered with. I feel certain, at least, of this — from all that
in public or in private I have seen, that if at this time, and at
such a bidding, under such threatening circumstances, with
infidelity raging around our walls — if this standard of our faith

is in any degree resigned, it will not be by the will or with the
consent of the Church, but it will be done by external forces
alone ; and that to the end the Church will be faithful to the
heritage that has been handed down to her from olden times
(loud cheers).

Another noteworthy feature of this great
meeting was the reading of the following letter
written to the Rev. Canon MacColl by the
Rev. Charles Kingsley : —

Eversley Rectory, Winchfield, January 31.

Dear Mr. MacColl — I am, to my regret, unable to be
present at the Meeting to-night. But I cannot let it pass with-
out asking leave to express my strong sympathy with its object.

I have long held that the general use and understanding of
the Athanasian Creed by the Church of England would exercise
hereafter (as it has exercised already) a most potent and
salutary influence, not only on the theology, but on the ethics,
and on the science, physical and metaphysical, of all English-
speaking nations.

I believe that that influence was never more needed than
now since the great French Revolution of the last century ;
and I am therefore the more jealous at this moment of the
safety of the Athanasian Creed.

I feel for, though I cannot feel with, the objections of many
excellent persons to the so-called Damnatory Clauses. But I
believe that those objections would die out were the true and
ancient Catholic doctrine concerning the future state better
known among us ; and therefore, in the event of an explanatory
rubric being appended to the Creed in our Prayer Book, I
should humbly pray that it may express, or at least include
and allow, that orthodox and salutary doctrine. — Believe me,
yours, with sincere good wishes,

CHARLES KINGSLEY.

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